Conveyor system including discharge pulley

ABSTRACT

Conveyor belt system for varying the parabola of fall of a conveyed material, has an endless conveyor belt having upper and lower runs supported by and traveling along a belt carrier, and the conveyed material is projected from the conveyor belt at the downsteam end of the upper run. The conveyor belt system also has a support roller carrier having upstream and downstream ends, and a plurality of support rollers for supporting the upper run of the endless conveyor belt. The support roller carrier is pivotably attached at its upstream end to the carrier. There is a return pulley for guiding the endless conveyor belt from its upper to its lower run, and the parabola of fall of the conveyed material is varied by use of a vertically adjustable snub pulley. A pivot arm varies the height of the pulley and is actuated by a hydraulic cylinder. In addition, a supporting roller is rotatably attached to the downstream end of the roller carrier and engages the upper surface of the pivot arm for pivoting the downstream end of the support roller carrier about its upstream end when the pivot arm means is pivoted.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a conveyor belt system equipped with adischarge pulley and various preceding support rollers.

2. Background Art

In prior art conveyor belt systems, the discharge pulleys and thesupport rollers immediately preceding them are firmly mounted at thefront end of the belt carrier. Since, moreover, the speed at which thebelt of the conveyor system moves is generally fixed, it is practicallyimpossible to change the parabola of fall during operation of the beltconveyor system. The unchangeable parabola of fall is a drawback inconveyor systems particularly when conveying sticky or dusty material ora material tending to form bridges.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus with simplemeans to change the parabola of fall downstream of the discharge pulleyof a conveyor belt system during operation so that the parabola of fallcan be adapted to different types of material being conveyed and can beset to a defined parabola of fall. In this way it is possible, forexample, to prevent the occurrence of spills or clogging during thetransfer of conveyed materials.

Also, for example, the development of dust can be reduced if dustymaterials are conveyed. The invention solves the problem at hand by thefeatures of a conveyor belt system for varying the parabola of fall of aconveyed material, comprising (a) a belt carrier having upstream anddownstream ends; (b) an endless conveyor belt having upper and lowerruns and being supported by and traveling along said belt carrier, saidupper run traveling from said upstream to said downstream end of saidbelt carrier, the conveyed material being projected from the conveyorbelt at the downstream end of said upper run; (c) a support rollercarrier having upstream and downstream ends and having a plurality ofrotatably attached support rollers for supporting said upper run of saidendless conveyor belt, said support roller carrier being pivotablyattached at its upstream end to said belt carrier; (d) a return pulleymeans rotatably attached to said belt carrier at its downstream end forguiding said endless conveyor belt from its upper to its lower run; and(e) means for varying the parabola of fall of a conveyed materialprojected from said downstream end of said conveyor belt, including: (1)a snub pulley means disposed upstream of said return pulley means forvarying the height of said conveyor belt; (2) a pivot arm means attachedto said snub pulley means and pivotably attached to said belt carrierfor varying the height of said snub pulley means, said pivot arm meanshaving an upper surface; (3) hydraulic cylinder means attached to saidpivot arm means for pivoting said pivot arm means; and (4) a supportingroller means rotatably attached to said downstream end of said supportroller carrier and engaging the upper surface of said pivot arm meansfor pivoting said downstream end of said support roller carrier aboutits upstream end when said pivot arm means is pivoted to thereby adjustthe slope of said carrier belt at the downstream end of said upper run.

In the apparatus according to the invention, the additional arrangementof a snub pulley which is adjustable in any case in front of thedischarge pulley-when seen in the conveying direction-permits the slopeof the conveyor belt, before it runs onto return pulley, to be changedand thus the parabola of fall to be set. The conveyor belt is broughtdownward at a different angle in front of the return and drive pulleysdepending on the height position to be set for the return pulley. Theparabola of fall can be set by making the slope of the descending beltsection in front of the return pulley adjustable. Thus, the parabola offall can be selected in such a way that the material being conveyed isproperly transferred even if, for example, the material is sticky. Abridge formation in the region of the dumped material can be avoided. Onthe other hand, the development of dust, if dusty material is conveyed,can also be reduced by setting the parabola of fall. The furthermeasures defined in the dependent claims serve this purpose inparticular in that the development of structure borne noise is reducedto a minimum by mounting the belt carrier on the belt frame in anelastic bearing.

DE-AS No. 1,112,010 (Federal Republic of Germany, Auslegeschrift)discloses a tripper device for discharging material from sectionalconveyors where the device includes a frame which supports the tripperand rests on a movable undercarriage. The return pulley, when used asthe tripper car, here acts as the discharge pulley. Seen in theconveying direction, a tripper pulley is disposed behind the dischargepulley to return the belt into the conventional loop shape. If thereturn pulley is no longer intended to act as the discharge pulley, thetripper pulley must be removed. Then one reach of the conveyor beltmoves over the now lowerable return pulley in the normal manner. Thereturn pulley, which may temporarily act as a discharge pulley, is thenmounted at the end of a pivotally hinged head piece of the belt carrier.The head piece is fastened to the tripper frame by means of pins and canbe lowered and raised by means of a suitable lifting device. Obviously,the head piece is provided with further pins to support the conveyorbelt but their position relative to the head piece is fixed and they canbe raised or lowered only together with the head piece.

Further details of the invention will be described with reference to anembodiment that is schematically illustrated in the drawing figureswhich show the following:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1, the end of a sectional conveyor system with discharge pulley,side view;

FIG. 2, a sectional view in the plane 2--2;

FIG. 3, a sectional view in the plane 3--3.

FIG. 4, an enlarged partial sectional view of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The leading end of a belt carrier 2 is supported on the beltfoundation 1. For this purpose, the front end of belt foundation 1 isprovided, on the one hand, with a supporting block 3 which hingedlysupports a hinged support 4 which is further hingedly supported on itsother side in a supporting block 5 at belt carrier 2.

Additionally, belt foundation 1 is provided with a supporting block 6which is equipped with four supporting faces 7, 8, 9 and 10 forming thefaces of a pyramid.

These supporting faces 7, 8, 9 and 10, which are arranged in the shapeof a pyramid, lie against rubber buffers 11, 12, 13 and 14 on which issupported the supporting member 15--likewise in the form of a four-sidedpyramid--of a further supporting block 16 which is fastened to beltcarrier 2.

In each case, belt carrier 2 is supported with respect to beltfoundation 1 by means of two of the above described supporting devicesdisposed on both sides of belt carrier 2.

At its front end, belt carrier 2 is provided with a drive and returnpulley 17 whose bearing and drives are not shown in detail. Conveyorbelt 18 is guided around this return pulley 17 and, seen in thetransporting direction, shortly before reaching return pulley 17, issupported by a snub pulley 19. Snub pulley 19 is mounted on both sidesin pivot levers 20 which are configured as double, i.e., angle levers.

These angle levers are mounted in further supporting blocks 21 at beltcarrier 2 while their other lever arm 22 extends vertically (e.g.,toward the bottom or the top) below or above the frame of belt carrier2. In FIG. 1 an embodiment in which lever arm 22 extends verticallydownwardly is shown. There, hydraulic cylinders 24 are hinged to pivotlevers 20 at hinge points 23, with the other side of the hydrauliccylinders being hinged to belt carrier 2 at 25.

The last support roller carrier 27 is supported by its own supportrollers 28 on the upper portion of pivot levers 20 on roll-off faces 26.The last support roller carrier 27 which supports support rollers 29 hasits other end supported in a hinged manner in a bearing 30 at asupporting block 31 of belt carrier 2.

The supporting frame 32 for a deflector 33 which can be hung atdifferent distances from return pulley 17 is disposed opposite returnpulley 17. The deflector is shown in a center position.

With the aid of hydraulic cylinder 24, the two pivot levers 20 can betilted, thus permitting snub pulley 19 to be set at different heightpositions, as indicated, for example, by dashed lines 19a. Correspondingto the different heights of snub pulley 19, the belt end 34 immediatelyin front of return pulley 17 can be set to different slopes as shown,for example, by the dot-dash position 34a. Corresponding to thedifferent slopes of these belt sections, different parabolas of fall 35,35a, etc. result.

I claim:
 1. A conveyor belt system for varying the parabola of fall of aconveyed material, comprising:(a) a belt carrier having upstream anddownstream ends; (b) an endless conveyor belt having upper and lowerruns and being supported by and traveling along said belt carrier, saidupper run traveling from said upstream to said downstream end of saidbelt carrier, the conveyed material being projected from the conveyorbelt at the downstream end of said upper run; (c) a support rollercarrier having upstream and downstream ends and having a plurality ofrotatably attached support rollers for supporting said upper run of saidendless conveyor belts, said support roller carrier being pivotablyattached at its upstream end to said belt carrier; (d) a return pulleymeans rotatably attached to said belt carrier at its downstream end forguiding said endless conveyor belt from its upper to its lower run; and(e) means for varying the parabola of fall of a conveyed materialprojected from said downstream end of said conveyor belt, including(1) asnub pulley means disposed upstream of said return pulley means forvarying the height of said conveyor belt; (2) a pivot arm means attachedto said snub pulley means and pivotably attached to said belt carrierfor varying the height of said snub pulley means, said pivot arm meanshaving an upper surface; (3) hydraulic cylinder means attached to saidpivot arm means for pivoting said pivot arm means; and (4) a supportingroller means rotatably attached to said downstream end of said supportroller carrier and engaging the upper surface of said pivot arm meansfor pivoting said downstream end of said support roller carrier aboutits upstream end when said pivot arm means is pivoted to thereby adjustthe slope of said carrier belt at the downstream end of said upper run.2. A device as in claim 1, wherein said pivot arm means includes twovertically extending pivot levers connected together to form adouble-arm lever having one end attached to said snub pulley means and afree end attached to said hydraulic cylinder means.
 3. A device as inclaim 1, further comprising a supporting block for elasticallysupporting said belt carrier so that said belt carrier is elasticallyyielding in the direction of travel and transverse to the direction oftravel of said endless conveyor belt.
 4. A device as in claim 3, whereinsaid supporting block has four supporting faces configured as afour-sided pyramid, and a rubber buffer disposed adjacent to each saidsupporting face.
 5. A device as in claim 3, further comprising a hingedsupport pivotably attached to said belt carrier and being disposeddownstream of said supporting block.
 6. A device as in claim 5, furthercomprising rubber pin bearing means for pivotably attaching said hingedsupport to said belt carrier.